Tools for GNU/Linux distributions creators.

Norean is a collection of tools designed for fast and efficient
implementation of GNU/Linux distributions. These tools works has
"software bricks", it's possible to use just some of the tools, or
all of them.

It's a sister project, but separate of Norean. It's a demonstration
implementation of what can be done with Norean. The primary goal for us
is to have a small system sufficient enough to develop Norean tools - so
it can give only a good start point for implementing something more robust,
nothing more.

In practice, Nakooki is a source-centric implementation of Norean tools.
That's only a part of what could be done, but far enough for ou use and
demonsration. Don't expect official CD iso releases, support, or whatever.

We provide this demo-implementation only in the hope to tease readers'
interest, for debugging the Norean tools, to proof that it works, and
that one day, peoples creating a real production distribution will use
Norean tools, and maintain their own Nbuilds, with their own architecture
support concerns, security patches, installation choices etc.

That's the only goal of Norean: provide tools to distribtution creators.

This project was initiated by Martial Daumas (aka MD) and
Philippe Nicolaļvitch Mironov (aka MIR) - respectively the former
creator and sysAdmin of the Nasgaļa GNU/Linux project, they left
in september 2004.

Short answer: NO.Long answer: We use LFS as a start-point
on some topics, nothing more, nothing less.

Neither is this a fork of Nasgaļa GNU/Linux - Nasgaļa is a distro, while
Norean is simply a collection of tools, most of them being born
during the Nasgaļa GNU/Linux creation time, but now these are completelty
distinct projects, and even if our tools share similar teminology,
they aren't compatible anymore.

None! We are "big bad all-mighty dictators", we do only what WE want, even
if we are wrong. We publish our work in the hope that you can find a use
for it, but you have no warranty at all, no help - you're on your own - it's
good old GPL, get it, use it, hack it, enjoy!

Submit valuable bugfixes in the form of unified diff
(diff -urN, that apply with -p1 are ok), they're welcome. Please
don't request code or system explanations, we just don't have time
to spend on this. If you wish to write some code, docs, or anything else
you're welcome too.

ncooker-norean

This is both an advanced package system (Npkg-make, Npkg-install, Npkg-remove),
and a 'port' system (Nmake) somewhat similar on many points to FreeBSD's port
system, as well as Gentoo's Emerge, or Sourcemage "spell").

This is a 'user-friendly' front-end to Ncooker, making semi-automated management
of source-based packages as well as binary pre-build packages a relatively
intuituve task. This tool can be seen, in its functionnalities as an hybrid
of Urmpi, apt, emerge, and similar tools.

A 'dialog' based tool for on-demand embedded system creation (e.g: Live-cd,
usb key etc..). It allows creation of fully customized Live-cd in a few
minutes, using normal packages, not special things. If fact, our init-scripts
are Nbed-compliant from scratch, only the existence of an 'NBED' file at the
root of filesystem will trigger variant action to work smooth on a read-only
media. That's all, everything else is excatly the same that what's used
on the Hard-drive, nothing to adapt, it works exactly the same.

It can be used at for easy creation of (non-exhaustive): advanced Live-rescue,
live-desktop, autoconfiguring DHCP client and LAN, gateways, NAT-box,
Distribution specific install-CD (binaries and or sources based),
cluster nodes, media-box etc...

Here are some screenshots of Nbed (v. 0.1) in action (on a nakooki-0.1 system):

Our own simpleinit based on the fork of Matthias Benkmann, with our very
specific (base system related) init scripts.
Note: these script will soon be maintained out of the simpleinit module
itself for improved modularity).

NanoFW is our iptables-based "personnal firewall". It also supports NAT (to turn
your system to a gateway).

Default rules follows a safe approach: "Everything coming from the outside is blocked,
unless allowed (via the plugins) or is really attended traffic".

Two configuration directories start/ and stop/ are use to add
per-package (or for sysadmin use) rules, making it very modular

Audits and feedback are higly welcome, as long it doesn't mean turning NanoFW into
"bloatware" - it must work mostly "out of the box" and stay simple to use/understand/modify.
Prefer Bastille or such for complex situations/need.

Oh, i forgot, We formerly bundled nanofw with iptables, but since it's a separate package,
it comes with files that permits it's use on Gentoo and most linux distros.
Submit support files for other widespread distros, please !